Rochester, N.Y., Wants To Reimagine Police. What Do People Imagine That Means?
This story is part of an NPR series, We Hold These Truths, on American democracy.
Stanley Martin was one of the Black Lives Matter activists who organized last year's protests in Rochester, N.Y. She pushed to change policing from outside the system.
This year, Martin is seeking change from the inside, running in the Rochester City Council primary on June 22. Her focus: "reimagining" public safety. To Martin, this means a radical new plan to abolish the police gradually.
She made that pitch on a recent afternoon when she walked from house to house, consulting a phone app that gave names of frequent voters. The app led her from one door to another in Beechwood, one of the city's southeastern neighborhoods.
"Rethinking public safety is a priority issue for me," replied Paola Betchart, who came to her door with a small boy in a Black Lives Matter shirt.
Of nearly 20 candidates for five at-large council seats, Martin embraces one of the most far-reaching concepts. She imagines a future in which the police force is slowly supplanted by services that take alternative approaches to crime. Other candidates and officials also talk of "reimagining" police â though they mean the same word very differently.
